Chapter 48: Yellow Sparrow Lurks Behind (Part 2): To Make Her Bow Her Head, She Must Bow It Herself Part 1

Mu Qian Tan’s eyes flickered slightly. She pressed her thumb against the sword’s guard and pushed out the blade. Sword light carrying abundant spiritual power shot forth, the blue glow brilliant as it struck the wall. After a crisp ding, the flying sword bounced back into its sheath.

A gash appeared on the mountain wall from top to bottom, revealing pale innards within. But it quickly squeezed shut, until not even a trace remained.

Mu Qian Tan’s expression darkened a bit.

Though the spirit sword was merely a low-grade magic tool and couldn’t unleash much power, she had poured quite a bit of spiritual power into that strike. Any ordinary demon should have been pierced clean through, yet the mountain merely split open for a moment before healing as good as new.

The three behind her also saw this scene and were all stunned. They looked toward the Stone Woman. She shook her head and pointed upward, indicating it wasn’t her doing, but the mountain demon’s.

Recalling the illusion they’d seen earlier, they could believe what she said was true. After all, she was merely the nurtured one. The one who could truly control this mountain was the Yellow Sparrow.

Thus, they had now become the prey in the Yellow Sparrow’s hunt.

Mu Qian Tan stood up and walked to Fu Li. She held out her hand. “Do you still have those explosives?”

When she was in a bad mood, it showed plainly—her tone cold and hard, her face grim. No one usually dared speak to Fu Li like this, but right now she didn’t even think to get angry. She stammered a few times, then lowered her head and rummaged through her storage pouch.

She stirred around inside for a long time without finding them, so she grabbed the pouch by the end and dumped everything out. Fu Li picked a few pellets from the pile of shiny tools and handed them to her. “Here.”

After handing them over, Fu Li pondered darkly to herself. Why did I listen to her? And why does this woman’s angry look feel so familiar?

Mu Qian Tan took the pellets and returned to the wall. She placed one on her fingertip and flicked it out.

The black pellet exploded against the wall with a boom, the shockwave ear-piercing as dust and smoke billowed toward them. The three immediately raised their hands to shield their faces. Shang Shan shouted, “Hey!”

In the narrow space, the dust should have lingered, but the surrounding walls absorbed the smoke. The cavern gradually cleared again. Mu Qian Tan stood in place, unaffected. The wall wasn’t breached, merely scorched black in one spot.

She tossed the remaining pellets into the air, caught them, and clenched her fist to tuck them into her sleeve.

If they didn’t work, they didn’t work. No need to waste them—they might come in handy later.

The sword couldn’t pierce it, the explosives couldn’t blast it. The mountain wall’s defenses were impregnable. It seemed the only way out was to kill the Yellow Sparrow.

But who knew how to kill the mountain demon? And they were still inside its belly.

Mu Qian Tan urgently had Li Biyuan check the Demon Bestiary Notes. Unfortunately, these books were meant for novice cultivators like Qin He and her group—covering only common demons encountered in daily life. There was nothing on shadow demons evolving into mountain demons by eating people, nor any standard countermeasures.

They couldn’t even handle mantis demons. Relying on those three kids was hopeless. From her observations, this Yellow Sparrow brushed against curse tier. To break out of this predicament, she couldn’t hide her strength any longer—she’d have to go all out.

Thinking over the past two days’ events, Mu Qian Tan firmly rejected the idea of revealing her true form.

She could die, but not suffer social suicide—especially not in front of these little sprouts! Absolutely not!

Having accepted this, she strode quickly to Shang Shan. “Give me the distress fireworks.”

Better to call over the other hall masters than suffer social suicide. If she concealed her aura properly, she might still fool them.

In any case, unless it was absolutely necessary, she wouldn’t make a move!

Shang Shan said, “Huh? Why all of a sudden…”

Mu Qian Tan scoffed. “Hurry up.”

Shang Shan clutched her cloth pouch. “No! If we send up a distress signal now, my trial score’s done for!”

Seeing her refuse, Mu Qian Tan wasted no more words. She grabbed the cloth pouch and yanked it over, ripping it open and shaking out the distress fireworks. She held them in hand. Shang Shan’s arms were suddenly empty, and she gaped in shock. “Wait, wait!”

The other two were dumbfounded, not understanding why this woman had suddenly turned aggressive and started snatching things. Qin He’s mind replayed their first encounter with the woman—trapped in the pitfall, timid and fragile. How had she become like this now…

Mu Qian Tan flung the messy pouch—who knew what junk was in there—back at her. With the distress fireworks in hand, she was about to launch them when she realized a serious problem.

This was a cave!

If explosives couldn’t blast through, how could fireworks get out?

Damn it, one headache after another.

“…” Mu Qian Tan tilted her head up at the cavern ceiling. Moments later, she tossed the fireworks back.

Shang Shan flailed to catch them and stuffed them into her pouch, hugging it tightly with a huff. “Same as always! You never listen to me! Always doing whatever you want!”

Mu Qian Tan’s tongue tapped lightly against her teeth, ignoring her. She took a deep breath to suppress her boiling anger, then turned to the woman and drew her sword, pointing it at her. “You should know the Yellow Sparrow’s weakness, right?”

The woman nodded and pointed at her own nose tip.

Mu Qian Tan said, “Be more specific.”

The woman pondered for a moment, drew a circle in the air, and tapped the topmost point. Then she drew a small circle.

Mu Qian Tan said, “The head?”

The woman made a splitting gesture. Mu Qian Tan furrowed her brows slightly and fell silent for a bit before saying, “Inside the head… inside the demon’s head… the demon core?”

The woman clapped her hands, indicating the answer was correct.

The three behind her were slack-jawed. She guessed that?

In truth, Mu Qian Tan wouldn’t normally be so sharp about such things, but she had once dissected the pipa demon and dug out its demon core from flesh and organs with her own hands. She still remembered the scorching heat of it in her palm. So, when it came to what lay inside a demon’s body, the first thing she thought of was the demon core.

Moreover, demons with demon cores were powerful because they could store and accumulate power within, drawing on it when needed. Conversely, it made perfect sense as a weakness.

But knowing the weakness didn’t make it easy to exploit.

If the mountaintop was the “head,” that was still a vast area, hard to pinpoint. And the demon core would surely be shielded by layers of mountain wall. She’d just tested it—breaking through the defenses was extremely difficult.

As Mu Qian Tan fretted, she suddenly recalled that the woman had said something else: kill her first, then the Yellow Sparrow.

Could killing this woman be the key to victory?

She edged the sword tip forward onto the woman’s shoulder. Mu Qian Tan said, “Do we have to kill you first? Why?”

The woman remained still. After a long pause, she slowly opened her mouth. A gravelly rasp like grinding stones emerged from her throat, faintly discernible: “Don’t… kill me… you… won’t find… her… where she is.”

So she could speak after all, though the voice wasn’t human—too grating. It took focused listening and guesswork to understand.

If they didn’t kill her, they wouldn’t find where the Yellow Sparrow was. Mu Qian Tan parsed the words and recalled the layers of bones being digested by the Yellow Sparrow in the illusion. “I get it.”

After the Yellow Sparrow Mountain Demon hunted, it didn’t immediately kill its prey. They were already trapped in the walls, unable to escape. So after feeding, it let them die slowly in terror. In this phase, it wouldn’t reveal its true form to attack, thus not exposing its weakness.

But killing the woman would surely alert it.

Mother and child connected by an umbilical cord—the mother’s death meant the child’s wouldn’t survive. The Yellow Sparrow would instantly lose its restraint, like it once did in the village, desperate to devour fresh human flesh. And there was plenty right in its belly—it would strike directly, creating an opening.

Understanding this, Mu Qian Tan channeled spiritual power into her spirit sword, preparing to sever the woman’s head. Shang Shan suddenly darted to her side and grabbed the blade, yanking it back so the tip veered from the woman’s neck. She said, “Wait, there might be other ways.”

Mu Qian Tan looked at her coldly. “Let go.”

Shang Shan grew a bit agitated. “How can we just kill her like that!”

Mu Qian Tan remembered that when the woman first made her plea, this brain-damaged dragon had agreed readily. She sneered. “Weren’t you pretty quick to agree earlier?”

Shang Shan said, “I only agreed to the second part!”

Qin He hurried over too. “I think we should wait a bit longer. What if there’s another solution?”

Mu Qian Tan said, “She’s been with this mountain for centuries. Do you understand it better than she does?”

Echoes buzzed in the cavern. Shang Shan’s chest heaved as she said uncomprehendingly, “You saw the illusion too. You know she was forced into it. She’s innocent! You’re really going to kill an innocent person without hesitation?”

Mu Qian Tan said, “You said it yourself—it’s an illusion. How can you confirm that’s the whole truth? What if she’s the real Yellow Sparrow, spinning a tale to toy with you? Wouldn’t you even suspect that before getting duped?”

“Whether she’s telling the truth or not, even without killing her, you’re so powerful—surely you have the strength to escape? Human lives mean nothing to you? Even now, you still have to pretend…”